A Big Dog on the World Stage: Turkey's incursion in northern Syria and its NATO disruption

Turkey is planning a new military operation in northern Syria. 

President Erdogan has said the incursion is intended to combat PKK/YPG “terrorists” and will facilitate the “voluntary” transfer of Syrian refugees back to their homeland. 

At the same time, Ankara has blocked Sweden and Finland’s NATO membership bids on grounds that the Nordic states provide support to the outlawed Kurdish militants. 

As Russia is distracted by the invasion of Ukraine and America is bogged down by the tranche of sanctions imposed on Moscow, Erdogan, it seems, is seizing a window of opportunity to advance Turkish interests in its war-torn neighbour and across the world. 

In this week’s episode of The New Arab Voice, we explore Erdogan’s rationale for launching a new military incursion in Syria and examine what impact this operation will have on the Turkish electorate, Syrian refugees and the Kurds. 

We speak with foreign policy experts Steven Cook (@stevenacook), based in Washington, and Ömer Özkizilcik (@OmerOzkizilcik), based in Ankara, about Turkey’s proposed incursion. We also discuss the fate of the Kurds in Syria and Iraq with freelance reporter Dana Taib Menmy (@danataibmenmy). 

This podcast is written and produced by Rosie McCabe (@RosieMcCabe3). Theme music by Omar al-Fil (@elepheel). 

Other music by Blue Dot Sessions.

To get in touch with the producers, follow then tweet us at @TheNewArabVoice or email hugo.goodridge@alaraby.co.uk.